Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!eu.feeder.erje.net!news2.arglkargh.de!news.ecp.fr!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Rod Pemberton" Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth Subject: Re: Forth16e, Forth32e, "de facto" forth programming standards for embedded Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 08:02:48 -0400 Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server Lines: 31 Message-ID: References: <49aa991d-41c6-44ae-afe4-ad1b7434011b@googlegroups.com> <53c928c6.819888433@news.demon.co.uk> <7xmwc69rdv.fsf@ruckus.brouhaha.com> <7xegxi9pzi.fsf@ruckus.brouhaha.com> <7edd6024-75fc-4c09-a7a9-892cd8b2c176@googlegroups.com> <0cedfdec-1922-4cc3-a339-2c5b292eb485@googlegroups.com> <26e2e926-3fd3-46a9-8876-42f1570795b6@googlegroups.com> <7f8cc421-cfa5-4ff5-8c17-8cc3299101ad@googlegroups.com> <69f20302-5bf7-443d-9f8b-c4ab078f6542@googlegroups.com> <311aa2f7-13d9-4e69-b414-d17e845ec8f0@googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: CNsg4fVcCsvs3UaOgZtQCw.user.speranza.aioe.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org User-Agent: Opera Mail/12.16 (Linux) X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2 Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.forth:32692 On Sat, 26 Jul 2014 07:13:57 -0400, Mark Wills wrote: > My bad. In my post above I said the BBC machines were ubiquitous in UK > shops. That was a brain fart. I meant to say ubiquitous in UK *schools*. > [...] My school in 1983 probably had more than 10 of them all fitted > out with disk drives and colour monitors. Apple II's were the equivalent for many US schools in the 1980's. I'm not sure how widespread computers were in US schools in the 1980's. This might've been nationwide, or just certain states, or just some counties. Home users bought a variety of machines, with the Commodore C64 and Vic 20 being very popular. But, I recall friends families with everything from TRS-80's to IBM PC's to Timex Sinclair 1000's to Amiga 1000's to Atari ST's, everything, and anything, or nothing. I don't recall anyone owning a Apple Macintosh. Universities seemed to like them. The great thing about the Macintosh was the software look and feel, GUI based, user responsiveness. It was decades ahead in terms of software, but the hardware was so restricted. E.g., sometimes you needed two floppies ... The IBM PC with it's ability to change and adapt was the future. In hindsight, I'd say that if the look and feel of Macintosh software ran on a more powerful machine like the Amiga 1000, and had the flexibility of installing extra cards, devices, and hardware like the IBM PC, then that machine would likely have been a phenomenal success. Instead, it took over a decade for IBM PCs to catch up in terms of software and hardware. Rod Pemberton